Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the The Planted Tank Forum forums, you must first register.
Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

OR

Log-in

User Name

Password

Remember Me?

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.

Additional Options

Miscellaneous Options

Automatically parse links in text

Automatically retrieve titles from external links

Topic Review (Newest First)

11-23-2012 02:39 PM

tomfromstlouis

I love your driftwood and suspect this is going to be one cool looking tank, but I must say that the rim on your tank is a big visual handicap. Seems to me that when you want to scape above the line, you have the best case for a rimless look that I know. Just sayin'.

11-22-2012 11:18 PM

WestHaven

The wood still looks good. Any updates?

11-20-2012 10:17 PM

RobMc

Haha oh boy... I may have made a grave error - we'll have to see.

I..uh...well I used bleach and water to sterilize the bog-wood... I think the concentration was too high.

I was originally going to use play-sand as a substrate - but now if I do use this wood I think I might have to use something darker.

11-20-2012 10:10 PM

RobMc

New tank / new scape

11-16-2012 04:27 AM

RobMc

I'm really attached to this idea now - thanks for all the food for thought guys.

I've found a 130 watt 24" coralife light which I'd like to hang above the aquarium.

My plan is to use a 29 gal tall (30" long vs 24", same depth of 12") ontop of the stand with the 20gal from the images resting on the lower shelf. I'd like to then have an overflow box siphon water to the lower tank through a 3.5' long 4" PVC drip/canister of pure biomedia into the lower tank which would act as a sump / shrimp breeding tank. I'll have a low wattage light and grow mostly java-moss, a dark substrate will be used to enhance coloration. I figure some of the fine mechanical debris from the main tank will be eaten by the shrimp, and be filtered / caught by the java moss - and the shrimp will have the most filtered / stable water directly from the canister. The larger water volume will also mean less PH shift / nitrate buildup.

The top (30x12) tank will be a low-tech dirt with miracle gro organic choice / worm castings / clay with a "filter sand" cap. Plenty of the bogwood. Right side planted mostly with anubias / java ferns. Left side planted with a variety of stem plants.

Additionally, in the rear, right corner I'd like to make a small raft and float baskets of hydroponic media to grow peace lillies and/or pothos. I'll run a small waterline to the top of the driftwood to trickle down. I'll take the advice on moss and cover the log with it.

Since the window receivers early morning light, mostly in the red spectrum I think I can get away with an actinic bulb and a 10k in the suspended fixture.

Algae is my biggest concern.

11-15-2012 07:28 PM

lochaber

If you do pump water up and have it trickle down over the wood, you could probably grow most aquatic mosses (or even terrestrial) on it pretty well. If you leave it dry, and just occasionally water it, you could probably go with almost any houseplant.

I've done some planted pieces of drift wood and old weathered wood before.

Right now, I've got a big chunk of driftwood in a pot, and I stuffed all the holes with potting mix, and then planted them. most are doing pretty well. The plants that seem to be doing the best currently are (sorry, I don't know the latin names for these, just the common names):

Or just have some anubias or java fern creeping up and out of the water and all over that wood.

if only you could get a hanging light above it though, you could probably do some seriously sick things with that piece

11-15-2012 04:15 PM

Twillz

Have you identified the moss attached to a couple of those pieces?

Depending on humidity level, and if you do wind up trickling water down the larger piece, you might look into adorning the section above the water line with some smaller orchids, tillandsia ("air plants"), and other humidity-loving epiphytes. Perhaps draped with some longer, hanging mosses? You can often easily find some varieties in the indoor section of local greenhouses. Could be very beautiful!

Beautiful wood! I have found anything that tall will dry out when it is in the tank, though. Any way you could plumb it, run a water line up inside then allow it to trickle back into the tank?

i think that adin did that in his journal. i believe its Adin...III, maybe II though.

btw, that is a SWEET piece of DW.

11-15-2012 04:04 AM

RobMc

Interesting idea - thinking of ways I could drill the wood out.
Ty

plumb it, have water trickling down and tie some pothos to it. Kind of like thin film aquaponics...

Maybe someone can chime in with some plants that grow well on wood.

11-15-2012 03:47 AM

Diana

Beautiful wood! I have found anything that tall will dry out when it is in the tank, though. Any way you could plumb it, run a water line up inside then allow it to trickle back into the tank?

11-15-2012 02:31 AM

RobMc

Big' Ole Bog-wood

So I'm sitting on a 20 gal that I have some diabolical plans for *rubs hands together* and I happened upon a marshy area with an ungodly amount of bogwood. I was on the clock...so I scurried in, grabbed what I could and tossed it in the truck.

Opinions? Ideas?

PS: Yes that is a window - it's east facing and only gets early morning light for ~2 hours, I'm hoping to incorporate this into the lighting schedule for the tank.

PPS: Yes I was allowed to bring that into the house. No, I'm not married.